Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Liver, Fried
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and fry
Dredge the liver slices in flour.
Fry the bacon in a pan until done, then remove and place on a hot dish.
In the same fat, fry the liver until lightly browned on both sides.
Make the sauce
Pour off excess fat, then add a little flour to the pan.
Stir in the broth, salt, pepper, and mushroom ketchup until the sauce boils.
If desired, add gherkins or pickled walnuts to the sauce.
Serve
Arrange the bacon and liver on a serving dish in a circle, alternating slices.
Pour the sauce over the liver and bacon, and garnish with sliced lemon.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together763 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Liver
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a lightly browned, tender texture.
- Flour
- Coats the liver for browning and thickens the pan drippings into a sauce.
- Bacon
- Adds salty, savoury fat that flavours the pan and the dish.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and savoury depth.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Fry the liver until lightly browned on both sides. Liver is thin and cooks quickly; overcooking makes it dry and firm, while the browned surface adds flavour through the Maillard reaction.
Swap the walnut
The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, lemon):
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Sesamefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, pepper, mushroom, ketchup, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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